Tri-City chairman Larry Schallock reads from a prepared statement Thursday announcing that the hospital board had fired its chief executive officer Larry Anderson. At right is the hospital's attorney, Greg Moser.

He was vague about the reasons, saying only that someone made a complaint on the hospital’s whistle-blower line “accusing Mr. Anderson of improprieties.” Schallock said the board unanimously agreed to hire an outside firm to investigate the complaint. That investigation apparently uncovered issues with “some of the decisions made by Mr. Anderson,” but Schallock declined to say exactly what facts were brought to light.

It did not appear that those reasons would be forthcoming anytime soon.

“The results of the investigation are a matter of attorney-client privilege and cannot be released for the protection of the hospital’s interests,” Schallock said.

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Anderson did not attend the meeting and neither he, nor his attorney, responded to requests for comment.

The board voted 6-0 to terminate the executive’s contract, with long-serving member RoseMarie Reno abstaining. Reno sat outside Thursday as the board discussed the decision in closed session. When asked why she wasn’t in the room, Reno said: “I am an adverse witness. That’s all I can say.”

Casey Fatch, the hospital’s former chief operating officer, is serving as the hospital’s interim chief executive. Schallock said the board will decide later how to proceed finding a new leader.

The board placed Anderson on administrative leave on Sept. 4, saying only that the action involved a “personnel matter.”

He was hired in 2009 after several Tri-City directors voted to put the hospital’s entire previous executive team, including former CEO Arthur Gonzalez, on paid administrative leave for still-undisclosed reasons.

Before coming to Tri-City, Anderson, who has a law degree from Loyola University, was president of Integrated Healthcare Holdings, a private company that owns four hospitals in Orange County. He spent the bulk of his career as in-house counsel for the U.S. Postal Service.

His tenure at Tri-City came with plenty of highs and lows. He was successful, for example, in getting the state to ease up on seismic regulations that would have required Tri-City to replace many of its buildings by 2013.

But his management style was often seen as controversial. In October 2012, one of his former lieutenants sued the hospital for millions of dollars alleging that Anderson was abusive to employees, berating some for taking time off work for medical reasons.

A major initiative that involved building a new medical office building in a now-defunct partnership with a private developer on Tri-City’s Oceanside campus is also a frequent topic of discussion in hospital circles. The building appears from the outside to be complete but remains unoccupied.

Greg Moser, Tri-City’s attorney, declined Thursday night to say what happens next now that the board has announced a parting of ways with its CEO.

“He has contractual rights we’re abiding by,” Moser said.

The contract pays Anderson nothing if he is terminated for cause but also includes an arbitration clause.